According to Statista’s 2022 report, 76% of B2B companies noted dedicating more time to customers and replacing face-to-face interactions with virtual solutions as their number one priority in implementing new digital sales strategies.
The trend is unsurprising, considering the steep rise of B2B online shopping during the pandemic. And as the B2B eCommerce market is expected to grow by nearly 20%, businesses are bound to toe the line in meeting their clients’ digital expectations.
Similar to B2C eCommerce, the best way to appeal to your B2B prospects in the online world is to create a beautiful, valuable, and uncomplicated website.
Even though B2B customers are business owners themselves, and their shopping decisions are perhaps less emotional and more traditional, they are still regular consumers.
Therefore, presenting your products and services straightforwardly, developing a seamless buyer journey, and providing immaculate customer service stands at the foundation of a successful eCommerce business.
With that in mind, let’s dive into the features of a successful B2B eCommerce website that sells.
Make Your Products Easy to Find
While creating a simple path to finalizing a purchase lies at the core of eCommerce sites, consider that B2B customers are usually paid employees who perform their shopping research and decision-making from 9 to 5.
With little time to spare, these B2B buyers need to understand what you offer, get enough information about your products/services, and be informed regarding the intricacies such as the price, delivery and payment options, return policies, etc.
The more info you provide initially, the more you ease and simplify your B2B prospects’ decision-making. This, ultimately, transforms a random website visitor into a satisfied customer and brand ambassador.
So, how do you make your products easily found?
Easy Website Navigation
Firstly, develop simple website navigation that will allow users to understand where they can access certain information on your website and be confident your site will meet their needs.
The menu should be comprehensive, with well-thought-out categories defined in a way your B2B clients think about them. Organize products to match their category perfectly and avoid redundant product groups and too in-depth subcategories.
Your customers want to find the product within a click – so make it happen.
Precise Search Feature
Put the search bar in an accessible place, make it stand out, and have your development team tune it up for the most precise search results.
What do we mean?
Well, let’s say you’re a B2B directory, and one of your visitors is searching for “website design NYC”. A poor search feature would show results for web design companies from cities other than New York or various businesses located in NYC.
Your ideal search functionality should present users only with web design companies in New York, exactly what they searched for.
Advanced Search Filters
If your assortment is too large, the basic search feature and product categorizing might not do the trick for your customers’ effortless purchasing. That’s where advanced filters come in handy.
These advanced filters can help your B2B shoppers refine their search by any feature – product price, color, production date, size, brand, etc. By narrowing the scope of their query and eliminating irrelevant information, filters allow users to find the exact content they are looking for.
Distinguish Between B2B and B2C Offer
Do you provide products/services to both business and general consumers? If so, do your best to facilitate purchase by unmistakeably dividing your offer for both consumer groups.
Create separate landing pages for B2B and B2C clients, and clearly state throughout to whom the page is dedicated.
In addition, contact pages, emails, and phone numbers should all be devoted uniquely to each consumer group. Finally, if your prices differ for B2Bs and B2Cs, make sure to state so on the website to avoid confusion among buyers.
Make Your Products Appealing
As we’ve already mentioned, your B2B customers probably don’t have much time to forage through your website to find relevant information. Therefore, your website content ought to be accessible, informative, and easy to digest.
Want to know how to do it?
Create Product Catalogs
Don’t you just love leafing through the supermarket catalog after a successful grocery shopping? Us too! So why not get inspired by that amazing feeling and use it in your business?
Catalogs are a powerful source of information for your shoppers. As a combination of text and images, catalogs encapsulate all necessary aspects of customers’ informed shopping decision-making.
High-quality Images and Videos
We are visual creatures, and the age of social media has perhaps even further cemented that fact. According to recent research, 96% of consumers stated they found videos helpful for making online shopping decisions. Moreover, 4x as many consumers prefer watching a video about a product than reading about it.
Create images and videos that accurately and in detail showcase your products and their use. Finally, don’t forget to caption your videos, as some of your B2B visitors might not be able to turn their volume up at the given moment.
Informative Website Content
Visual content rules the online world, both on socials and on websites. Still, make sure to cater to your more traditional B2B shoppers and write elaborate product descriptions for the website itself.
B2B shoppers aren’t that prone to being emotionally influenced into shopping. Instead, they seek relevant information, the most attractive price, and the most favorable purchasing conditions.
Provide precise specifications in written form and try to answer all your customers’ potential questions. Be detailed when it comes to payment options, delivery alternatives, and return policies.
Brand Your Website
When a business researches products/services for their needs, you can bet there’s plenty of tabs opened in that browser. After reading through numerous websites with similar offers, your B2B prospects can easily get confused between different companies.
Still, you can help them remember your business by designing an eCommerce website completely in line with your brand.
Start off with your company colors, typography, and slogan, and make sure your brand image is seen throughout the website.
Promote Communication With Customers
B2B customers usually purchase either large quantities or highly expensive products. Either way, they are bound to have some additional questions regarding the price, payment and delivery options, etc. That’s why developing a fast, seamless communication path between you and your B2B customers is one of your top priorities.
Simple Contact Forms
Ameliorate your customers’ experience with your brand by creating a concise and intuitive contact form. Think through which information you actually require from them, and omit any unnecessary ones. To speed up the fill-in process, develop a contact form that has an auto-complete option.
24/7 Chat Support
Chatbots are gaining ground in the eCommerce world for many reasons – shoppers are sometimes unable to locate the desired product, can’t find delivery and payment information, wish to ask more regarding the product or return policies, etc.
Chat support is readily available to customers even when you or your employees aren’t. That’s why integrating chatbots is highly recommended to eCommerce businesses with international B2B customers, as well as local ones that aspire to provide exceptional customer service.
Create User Profiles
Shorten the order and purchase path of your B2B customers by developing the user profile feature on your eCommerce website. Once logged in, your shoppers can access their previous orders, save address, contact, and payment details, and receive personalized offers based on their purchasing history.
Author bio:
Tomas is a digital marketing specialist and a freelance blogger. His work is focusing on new web tech trends and digital voice distribution across different channels.